Bill Gates Pays to Train Educators on the Palm OS

Palm Inc. and Alaska are working together to educate that state's school administrators on how to use handhelds with a goal of making them more efficient managers, thereby improving Alaska's education system. The administrators can buy a Palm handheld at a discount and then receive free training through the Palm Education Training Coordinator (PETC) program. The ironic part is the program is being funded by an $864,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Bill Gates is, of course, the chairman of Microsoft, which makes the rival Pocket PC OS.

So far, the plan is successful. "Palm handhelds are so straightforward and easy to use that the adoption rate has been outstanding," said Kelly Tonsmeire, director of Alaska Staff Development Network (ASDN).

Palm handhelds are being used to provide school leaders with an easy way to access the information they need to help their students improve their performance. Tonsmeire believes that, once school leaders are trained in a system designed to help all students meet high standards, Alaska's schools could see measurable improvement in student performance on state and national tests.

The PETC program is a train-the-trainer program that provides participants with a ready-to-use, complete training curriculum for basic handheld skills and curricular implementation. Individuals trained through PETC then train other principals and provide follow-up training for district teachers

RE: ????

RE: ????

He has many organizations where he donates money, education organizations are his favorites. I donīt think he is constantly tracking what they do with the money. It just happenned that the ASAD has intelligent people who knows the advantages and disadvantages of both platforms. They chose PalmOS trying to give the best to their educators and believing that their decision would also be the best for their students. They donīt give a heck if Bill will get less money from the license, besides it would be really embarrassing if they chose PPC, and a real pain in the .ss for the school administrators :-)

RE: ????

I believe this. I just got done doing a research project on Bill Gates. His foundation, and his belief: He will support (obviously financially) any company, schooling, etc. that actively uses technology to complete tasks and stuff. It's been his dream since he was a little kid. It is quite funny though.

RE: What's wrong with that?

OFF WITH TROLLS HEADS!!!! PPC is NOT as easy to use as Palm. SIMPLE as THAT. This just shows that the educators know what they are doing, and that simplicity is best. Oh, isn't that the Zen of Palm....

RE: What's wrong with that?

I am one of the three network technicians for our school district and the fact is alot of our educators today arent trained very well in computers The palm os, for the most part is a really easy to use interface...not that it's intentionally "dumbed down" (like microsoft tries to do w/ parts of windows sometimes..like the control pannel in windows xp). the palm os is smaller, less processor/memory intensive, and more reliable than windows CE. not to mention palm handhelds are usually cheaper...maybe they gave all the teachers m100's which would be about 1/4 the cost of giving everyone a pocket pc

RE: Letting someone else pave the way

> Yeah....and if those kids were using a PPC, all they would do is play games and listen to music all day. LOL!

That's all they would do anyway. Either that, or find a way to download porn onto them. I would take bets as to how many Palms would end up stolen by "enterprising" students if they let them be used in schools.

Alas, ancient subjects like math, science, reading and writing are not sophisticated enough for the educational establishment. Bring in the Palms.

RE: Letting someone else pave the way

Gates Foundation Grant

My wife is an internet trainer in a library. The library recevied a huge grant for new computers to teach the public on. They normally taught everything using Netscape. When they got this grant, the Gates foundation SPECIFICALLY stated that Netscape was NOT allowed to be loaded on the machines! Since all their documentation was already done using Netscape, they had to re-do EVERYTHING all over again. It was quite a pain for them to do that. Also Internet Exploder did not do some things that they were teaching in the class that Netscape did, so they have to take it out.

I think that is bogus that Gate forced them to change the whole documentation and again force their competitor out.

By 2 cents.

Beggars can't be choosers

They wouldn't have any computers in the first place if it weren't for the Gates grant. They should be greatful that someone was kind enough to give them free money. Rewriting documentation is a small price to pay for such generosity.

RE: Gates Foundation Grant

Look, a long long time ago in a galaxy far far away, there were a bunch of dudes who lived in a town called "Troy". There were another bunch of dudes, called "Greeks", who they had difficulties relating to on a personal level. How can I put this? The Greeks were philanthropically challenged; they just didn't get along with the residents of Troy (who were called "Trojans") at all. So much so that the Greeks attacked the Trojans and besieged Troy for 10 years (NB we are not talking about a drive-by here). Then one day, all of a sudden, the Greeks seemed to give up. In fact, to show that there were no hard feelings, they left a gift for the Trojans - a giant sculpture of a horse. The Trojans thought that this was just great, they hauled the horse into their town and they celebrated their victory all day and night (they really partied hard). Early the next morning, 50 Greeks, who had hidden themselves in the horse, opened the town gates from within and let in their compadres. The Greeks really rocked and rolled; all the Trojans were killed.

The moral to this story is: beware of Greeks bearing gifts.

RE: Gates Foundation Grant

Actually they had computers that were just fine to teach the internet, however these new ones are faster, have more memory, more HD space and ALOT more programs on there installed by default and they don't even use all of them. Alot of childen software.

RE: Gates Foundation Grant

"They normally taught everything using Netscape. When they got this grant, the Gates foundation SPECIFICALLY stated that Netscape was NOT allowed to be loaded on the machines!"

I really don't see the problem with this, if bill Gates gave you the money to buy computers of course he can set conditions on how you are going to use those computers. You got the freedom to NOT accept the money, there's always freedom of choice. And I guess your wife's job is library trainer, it is her responsibility to write documentations, if she doesnt like the job then quit it.

RE: Gates Foundation Grant

That's really petty on BG's part. No wonder he and his cronies are in court for being a monopoly.I'm all for Palm for offering the alternative. I wish we have a Palm equivalent in PC desktop. I would switch over in a second from my MS OS.

RE: Gates Foundation Grant

RE: Gates Foundation Grant

A close friend of mine is a trainer for the Gates Foundation -- she flies around the country and installs these systems in libaries and trains librarians on how to use and manage them.

They aren't trying to limit you from using Netscape because of some Bill Gates agenda. They provide support for these computers. They go to a LOT of trouble to set of profiles and policies to make a 'locked down' system that is safe to put in a library and that meets patrons' and librarians' needs alike. Certifying software to work in a locked-down enviornment like that is very difficult.

A lot of software doesn't properly support profiles (Palm Desktop included). So since the Gates Foundation provides support for these computers, are they expected to support EVERY third party application, even if it isn't going to 'play nice' with the rest of the machine?

Of course not. Corporate IT doesn't provide unlimited support third-party software, and neither should they be expected to. They may have money out the wazoo, but they aren't insane.

So cut them some slack. Melinda may have a huge office at the Foundation, but the Gates's are hardly involved in its day-to-day operations. Even if Microsoft went backrupt tomorrow, the Foundation has a big enough nest egg to continue to exist indefinitely. They don't exist to further Microsoft's agenda.

RE: Gates Foundation Grant

The point of education grants is to help educate kids, not get your company a foothold in an area that Windows has traditionally been weak, the classroom.

Microsoft really hates it that so many students are exposed to the MacOS in the classroom. If they can just find a way to get the Macs out and Windows machines in, no one need ever see a non-Microsoft OS their entire life.

When dealing with Bill and co., you have to look out for the underhanded tricks. There's always a hidden catch when you're dealing with Microsoft. Once you've found the first one, keep looking because there's probably another.

RE: Gates Foundation Grant

Hi I.M. Anonymous,I'm interested in applying to the Gates Foundation as one of their Public Access Computer Trainers like your friend. I applaud the Foundation's efforts in bringing the technology to underserved parts of the USA. It's very much needed!

Several months ago my 13 year old nephew, who lives in Lancaster, CA expressed a interest in learning more about computers. I suggested that he sign up for some free classes at the local library or at a nearby community center since he didn't have access to a computer at home. He said there weren't any to sign up for.

After conducting my own online search for basic computer classes in Lancaster, I changed my search to just public use computers. That search was not very fruitful either. I now realize how truely blessed I am living in the Seattle area, where public computer access is available all over the place and classes offered regularly. I was suprised that there's not more resources available in Lancaster.

Hence my interest in applying to the Gates Foundation to help make Technology available to someone else's nephew or sister, grandmother or dad, etc. My passion drove me to sign up as a volunteer for TechCorpsWashington (helping to support schools), but I'd like to do more. I'd love to contact your friend (if that's at all possible) to learn more about the efforts from a frontline perspective. Thanks and off my soapbox now. :) Becca

Yeah, but what happens when they try to hotsync?

Why make fun..

I know it's ironic and therefore "funny", but this very rich guy actually does a LOT of good with his money, and is pretty generous, considering he doesn't have to be (would people flock to Linux if he wasn't philanthropic??). Attempts to make him look 'foolish' or stupid aren't really productive. If they make you feel good, even a hack therapist could help you with that issue.

RE: Why make fun..

Am I the only person who remembers that, back in the mid90s, Bill Gates got tons of criticism for giving away almost no money? First, Bill said he didn't have to donate any because he made lots of Microsoft stockholders rich and they donated money. That only increased the criticism (no surprise) and, finally, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was created.

his dad

his dad helped build prisons... he was a lawyer who helped control the bar or something like that... what a role model for an up and coming industrialist... yup, marketing the microsoft way... and now his father is paying off his moral debt with gifted cash.... disposable cash... stolen cash... and they arent no robin hood....its tech wellfare

RE: his dad

translation: "I am irrationally disposed to hate MS and Bill Gates simply because I am jealous of the power and popularity of his products. I will therefore bring my politics and 'morality' as an argument in order to make cheap shots."

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